'Smoke blanketing the strait': Iran steps up campaign of threats to shipping

Iran said smoke from three naval mine explosions was “blanketing the skies” over the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday as it piles pressure on the US and Gulf with intensified threats to shipping.

In one incident, the UAE National Guard rescued 22 people from a burning cargo ship in the Gulf of Oman. The UK's Maritime Trade Operations reported a second vessel on fire and a third being struck near the strait.

The naval forces of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said three ships were burning in the strait after trying to evade Iran's blockade early on Sunday. In a new propaganda flurry, the IRGC has reported at least 12 ships catching fire since the start of the month, mostly after hitting naval mines.

Iran says the strait will not reopen until the US makes concessions in negotiations. The US is meanwhile tightening its own blockade of Iran, with a Central Command team known as Task Force Iron Gate assigned to stop the regime in Tehran receiving goods or revenue over its land borders.

The stand-off leaves the Gulf and its sea lanes in limbo while the US considers new military action. The midterm election thrashing suffered by Mr Trump’s Republicans last week was blamed widely on the unresolved war and high prices caused by the blockade.

Iran has hinted that Yemen's Houthi rebels could sow similar chaos in the Bab Al Mandeb strait if the war resumes. The Houthis on Sunday claimed responsibility for an attack on Saudi Arabia's Aramco oil company, which had a building damaged by falling shrapnel.

Traffic in the Strait of Hormuz stands at about 20 per cent of its prewar level, the latest figures from Lloyd's List Intelligence show, with most ships choosing not to run the risk. Reports of mine explosions were once relatively rare but have been announced by the IRGC and Iranian navy almost daily since mid-October, sometimes accompanied by grainy footage of burning ships.

Few of the mine incidents have been confirmed by the UK Maritime Trade Operations monitor or other sources. Analysts at the Institute for the Study of War said the Iranian claims “likely seek to create an informational effect to increase shipping companies’ risk perceptions” in the strait. They said Iran had used drones, anti-ship cruise missiles and limpet mines to attack ships near the strait.

Show caption: A commercial vessel in the Gulf of Oman after being struck b…

Unauthorised routes

The IRGC said the three tankers said to have caught fire on Sunday were “travelling through unauthorised routes in the Strait of Hormuz” and had disabled their navigation software.

Iran claims the right to direct shipping through its preferred lane and deny entry to unwanted traffic, using the sea lane as a pressure tool in its war with the US and Israel.

The three tankers were “hit by explosions and large fires, with smoke from the blazes blanketing the skies over the strait”, the IRGC navy said. It said any other ships taking unauthorised routes “will have no other fate than this”.

The two tanker incidents reported by the UKMTO occurred late on Saturday, one in the strait and the other a short way off Oman's coast. Reviewing the past week, the agency said it had confirmed eight attacks in the Strait of Hormuz and three in the Arabian Gulf.

Three of the affected vessels sank and five more had to be rescued. It said further incidents “are known but cannot be independently verified”.

In the cargo ship incident, the UAE National Guard's intervention led to the 22 people on board, all Arab citizens, being brought to safety in a stable condition. The guard had last month rescued the same number of people from an oil tanker fire in the Arabian Gulf.

Show caption: The US is hoping to squeeze Iran's economy to force concessi…

Third aircraft carrier

A third US aircraft carrier, the USS Theodore Roosevelt, is expected to arrive in the region this week, as Mr Trump considers his next move. No major post-election strike has yet taken place as Qatar, Pakistan and other go-betweens try to prevent the war from reigniting. Egypt's Foreign Ministry said on Sunday that Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty and Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan had discussed the push to de-escalate.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Saturday he had held talks with 12 foreign ministers in 48 hours in a diplomatic flurry. The talks have shown little signs of bringing concessions aside from Iran offering to reopen the strait in two days rather than seven if the US meets its extensive demands, such as ending the naval blockade.

The US says the blockade has deprived Iran of revenue from more than $25 billion in oil exports. Adm Brad Cooper, the head of Centcom, said the new task force on land imports would “reinforce the success of our ironclad blockade against Iran at sea”.

Task Force Iron Gate will aim to prevent advanced weapons, sanctioned materials and revenue streams from entering Iran across its land borders or through the Caspian Sea. IRGC spokesman Brig Gen Hossein Mohebbi dismissed the plan as “merely a play on words”.